By Judge ruled university ignored student’s disability following tragic suicide
A judge has ruled the University of Bristol ignored a student’s disability following her tragic suicide.
20-year-old Natasha Abrahart was a student at the University of Bristol when she tragically took her own life in 2018.
Her heartbroken parents blamed the university for their failure to provide adequate support for her social anxiety disorder.
It is understood that the university is looking into an appeal.
Judge Alex Ralton, who heard the case at Bristol County Court, said:
“In my judgment there can be no doubt that there was direct discrimination, especially once the university knew or should have known that a mental health disability of some sort was preventing Natasha from performing”
The BBC reported a 46-page written judgment evidenced the university had breached its duties to make ‘reasonable’ adjustments during Miss Abrahart’s course assessments.
It suggested that the university treated her unfavourably because of the constraints her disability presented.
The document stated these breaches caused her death, adding oral assessments exacerbated Natasha’s “depressive illness”
The report highlighted an array of “poor” oral assessment results that Miss Abrahart received, one of which was a 0 out of 100.
“Her poor performance would likely have been down to being unable to orally answer questions”, the report said.
After the ruling, Natasha Abrahart’s father, a retired university lecturer, said:
“Today, 1,481 days after Natasha took her own life on the day of an assessment she simply couldn’t do, after years of protestations from the university that it did all it could to support her, after having battled our way through an inquest and a civil trial, we finally have the truth”
“The University of Bristol broke the law and exposed our daughter to months of wholly unnecessary psychological trauma, as she watched her grades plummet, and her hopes for the future crumble before her eyes”, he added.
Her mother said:
“We really hope the University of Bristol will finally take its head out of the sand and recognise that now is the time for change”
“We hope they will apologise for the role they played in Natasha’s death and will take us up on our offer of help”, she added.
A spokesperson for the University of Bristol said:
“Our whole university community has been deeply affected by Natasha’s tragic death and we would once again like to extend our sympathies to her friends and family”
“We believe staff in the School of Physics worked incredibly hard and diligently to support Natasha during her time with us, and it was due to their efforts that she was receiving specialist mental health support from the NHS”, they stated.
“Our staff’s efforts also included offering alternative options for Natasha’s assessments to alleviate the anxiety she faced about presenting her laboratory findings to her peers. We are very grateful to them for their endeavours on Natasha’s behalf and for their unwavering commitment to our students”
“Given the significant impact this decision could have on how all higher education providers support their students, we are reviewing the decision carefully, including whether to appeal”
The university was ordered to pay £50,000 in damages for discriminating following the final verdict.
